My E-Mail: moh.hakem@gmail.com

This blog is unlike the previous one “15 pictures you won’t believe they are shot in Egypt“ which only showed nice pictures of Egypt. This article is only about the people of Egypt, and let me say the REAL people of Egypt.Now the media ,influenced by the current political status, constantly pictures us violent and chaotic until we forgot how kind, happy, innocent, tough and nice people we really are. The below pictures will display very normal and simple people from all around Egypt who pass by our eyes daily unnoticed.

1.This man ,named Jamal, lives in a lovely place. A place near Bahareya Oasis in the middle of the desert between the black and the white areas. It is a very simple restaurant/home that offers lovely food and drinks with the SAME prices as the capital, The man doesn’t speak much. all he does is running…

[Needs some pruning perhaps and related posts and links at the end. After this blog’s new graphical clothing is up and running. Too many WordPress pages tangled with posts: custom menus may be the solution]

ψ

An excellent blog about Egypt. I will hunt for others.

Mario: “Why Egypt?”

MoR: “Everybody liking Antiquity must have Egypt in his / her mind.”

Fulvia: “I thought Greece and Rome shaped what became later the ‘proud West’ that conquered the world”

Extropian: “C’mon, Fulvia, that I can’t take my eyes away from your bazookas doesn’t mean you haven’t said ‘na stronzata!”*they all laughing & winking at her*

The Tobacconist: “Allow me, Fulvia, friends. That the Greco-Romans of any time went, for their Grand Tour, to Egypt and to other Semitic lands – and beyond, with links to Mesopotamia & India – is a historical fact.”

“My dear friends – she breaks the ice – this conversation has captured my attention (and that female friend was so boring I much prefer here”*Looking at the men furtively, her Scarlett-Johansson-like body invisibly vibrating*

“Should I remind you that in any philosophy manual for schools accurate scholars argue that philosophy and science were born in Greece? That other races, considered well not lower – on peut pas dire cela – toutefois incapable …”

ω

Everyone ignores her words, rejected in a quasi-careless way due to their absurdity, although, thing being, we are also – men and women alike – absolutely mesmerized by Clodia’s sensual magic.

It pervades the air round us since she sat down. Spring, despite the lousy weather, not helping much either.

ω

“A sensuality that could rival that of Cleopatra (had Cleopatra been less intelligent)” was the thought of a few of us.

Wrong, Clodia is refined and cultivated, but Cleopatra (Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ,) who seduced both Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius and (which counts much more) the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt c’mon.

Esquiline Venus, found in 1874 on the Esquiline Hill in Rome (from the Horti Lamiani possibly). Capitoline Museums, Rome. To some scholar the model for this statue was Cleopatra herself

The Samnite, 30, his brand-new Sony smartphone in his left hand, saves us all:

“Let me see … yes. In A.L. Basham introduction to Oxford’s A cultural History of India one reads:

“The four main cradles of civilizations …. moving from east to west … [were] China, the Indian subcontinent, the Fertile Crescent, and the Mediterranean, especially Greece and Italy.”

Extropian: “That the Greco-Romans (and, later, proud conquering West) were considered the high races and the Semitic and other folks the lower races (incapable of real philosophy and science – you find it in almost all European manuals of the first half of the 1900, not just those by a certain type of German historians in the 1930’s.”

While Egypt may be facing political and social turmoil, Egypt’s exotic, mysterious and historic locations continue to stand, receiving adventurers and explorers. If you are thinking of exploring Egypt in 2014, then here are 14 must-visit places in Egypt, along with others that you should already have planned to see!

(Note: Many of these photographs are thanks to Mohamed Hakem. Check out his blog here: mhakem.com)

1. The White Desert

Credit: Mohamed Hakem

While it may look like the moon, this photograph was taken at the White Desert near Bahareya Oasis. The white surfaced desert which resembles an alien planet has been used to film Sci-Fi movies, including Vin Diesel’s Riddick. The desert is renowned for its rock formations, safari trips, and over night camping.

The huge Constantine’s Roman Basilica in Trier, Germany, used today as a Protestant church (courtesy of Dulcevisa). Click for source

Spontaneous philosophy

We have said in a previous post that all men are philosophers since everyone in the course of his/her life keeps building a constantly evolving grid of interrelated concepts that shape his/her unique conception of the world.

Therefore ‘philosophy’ is not such a weird thing that pertains only to a specialized category of professionals. It is on the contrary a natural feature of our species, exactly like talking or walking on two legs.

Inner motives help

There is another element I want to point out (since we mentioned it just briefly in the past.)

These concepts and their linking seem (at least to me) related to inner motives each of us keeps inside, unconsciously or not. Such motives, often of biographical origin, are like filters that…

When I grew up and realised who Jimmy and John really were (also,) I personally loved them even more (my friend ça va sans dire.)

We may have different views on a few things, my friend and I, but we both respect faith, big ideals, honesty.

Today Europeans are darn proud of America.

The killer, the folks’ souls poisoner lies deep in the ocean.

Personally I don’t care who the hell will judge him.

But if someone up there is watching humankind (by loving us especially) may He / She bless the wonderful American people.

ψ

AMERICAN EMBASSY IN ROME. Palazzo Margherita on Via Veneto in Rome was built from 1886 to 1890 by Gaetano Koch for prince Rodolfo Boncompagni Ludovisi. You might hear this story in Calcagni's memoirs (Wikipedia image and text). Cick to enlarge

Rome after Bin Laden’s death

Rome is no NYC nor Washington DC but …

… did here people flock somewhere as it happened at the World Trade Center or before the gates of the White House?

No idea but I mean, entire areas of the city were blocked when we approached the down town area on our way back from Tuscany this veryearly morning (3 hours drive.)

Ok, we yesterday had 1rst of May plus the beatification of Pope John Paul II in the eternal city. We knew what traffic anarchy was awaiting us so we delayed our return till this Monday morning.

After having learned the great news from our car radio and me having been dropped by Flavia not far from Rome’s American Embassy – I thought btw about my dear American and Italian IT ex students working there (read about one here, not because he’s not criticizing me lol) : many black cars were by now protecting this huge American-embassies’ hub (which testifies US-Italia friendship btw) – and on the way to my guitar guru while desperately entering bars in search of A-bomb espressos to keep myself awake and while using taxies, talking to these great people (YES, taxi drivers of any city in the world, they are great) …

…. I noticed the men-in-the-street reaction synthesized by a Roman laconic cab driver:

Berlusconi and Gaddafi. What on earth do they have in common? They were supposed to be ‘friends’. Click for attribution and to to enlarge

It is weeks I wanted to write something about the Arab spring revolutions. It all started in Tunisia, separated from Italy by only 44 miles (Pantelleria) and by 68 miles (Sicily.)

This being not totally fortuitous in my opinion – we will see in any case.

This is a thoughtful Roman blog, not a newspaper, so we’ll talk over such political (and military) crises in our own Roman way :-)

Talk over literally, since I recently discovered how convenient a microphone can be.

Waves of Revolution.
“Who the Hell Cares”

Image drawn when Gaddafi arrived to Rome (on june 2009?). Our PM welcomed him as a leader and as a personal friend. Click for credits and to enlarge

Disturbance; want of values in new generations; so-close-to-Italy Muslim countries exploding like bombs; the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India & China) about to make our Western asses black & blue.

France, the UK, Germany, the US etc. not being on better grounds than we are; our ineffable PM Berlusconi glued to his chair not giving a damn about his country’s future and claiming ‘communist’ magistrates are the only ones to blame for his HUGE legal problems (read the Guardian, among the rest, any political colour saying the same worldwide) and btw only half-heartedly admitting his friend Muammar Gaddafi is a cruel dictator butchering dissenters with fighters missiles.

By the way, did the two Big Men have fun ensemble with chicks? No evidence that I posses but it’s a given that when Gaddafi arrived to Rome (June 2009?) hundreds of Italian babes flocked to his tent placed in a Roman public (and luscious) garden and, well, rumours say quite a few converted to Islam for 80 Euros (100 USD)!

When asked by journalists (see picture below) – who were staring at their stunning faces boobs (and legs) – why on earth had they converted, they replied:

[I am using my words but I heard those chicks’ words on TV; they were no different, at times even worse]

A young Italian showing the Qur’an after meeting Muammar Gaddafi in his tent placed in a luscious Roman public garden. Click for attribution

Let me tell you this whole thing is allarmante, alarming.

And it’s all the more when we realise we are so few to be alarmed – as a Milan’s blogger wittingly put it.

While strolling about Rome I actually notice that in cafés shops and bars no one really gives a damn, with Milan teaming up with us (the two major Italian cities – not to mention the provinces, that probably care even less.)

Instead, Libya and the Rest ‘Do Affect’ Us

Libya with Italy on top. Giolitti in 1911 and later Mussolini deemed its conquest as a natural expansion of Italy in ‘Mare Nostrum’.

Libya and the Arab spring upheavals do affect us instead. We all have Greco-Roman and Mediterranean roots, so South and East shores mattered (and matter) to us.

In 1911 the Italian PM Giovanni Giolitti launched the progressive conquest of Libya, later continued by Benito Mussolini until 1931.

Libya became ‘ours’ because our newly-founded Nation desired to invent her own empire at a time when the real thing, ie the British and the French empires, were soon to fall apart (as Lucio Caracciolo, director of Limes, yesterday observed in the Roman daily La Repubblica.)

Libya 1911-1931, we were saying. A bloody phase of battles and unrelenting anti-Italian guerilla at the end of which our technologically superior country (morally too?) made use of chemical weapons and poisoned the farmers’ wells to the extent it wiped out 1/10 of the Libyan population (100,000 casualties) – according to the Italian Wikipedia.

Aristippus (Ἀρίστιππος), Socrates’ disciple, who there preached how to enjoy life pleasures “from all circumstances and how to control adversity and prosperity alike;”

Callimachus (Καλλίμαχος) who there had his birth and without whom the greatest Roman poets of the Latin golden age would never have existed (Catullus, Virgil, Tibullus and Propertius;)
Eratosthene (Έρατοσθένης), also from Cyrene, the first scientist ever capable of exactly measuring the size and circumference of our planet.

Libya’s National Hero:
Omar Mukhtar, a Pious Man

Omar Mukhtar, Libya’s great national hero, hanged by the Italians in 1931. “For nearly 20 years he led native resistance to Italian colonization.” Wikipedia. Also image via Wikipedia. Click to enlarge

In 1862 CE Omar al-Mukhtar had his birth in Cyrenaica as well (see picture above.)

Omar al-Mukhtar is Libya’s great national hero, a religious and pious man.

For 20 years he led an unrelenting anti-Italian resistance and when captured in 1931 (see picture below) his deep personality “had an impact on his Italian jailers, who later remarked upon his steadfastness” (English Wiki.)

Omar Mokhtar arrested by the Italians in 1931. Click for file source

A sort of Nelson Mandela, one could say, with the difference that deep sage Omar didn’t make it.

It seems the Italians arrested Mukhtar’s court appointed defence lawyer, capitano Roberto Lontano, who took ‘too honestly’ his defence job, which suggests unfairness in Mukhtar’s trial.

“On September 16, 1931, Mukhtar, at the age of 73 years, was hanged before his followers” who were ALL prisoners in the concentration camp of Solluqon. The Italians hopes were that Libyan resistance would end with him.

PS. I don’t mean here that Italians were worse than any colonizer. I believe instead that every country follows the principles of Realpolitik which “focuses on considerations of power, not ideals, morals, or principles.”

Machiavelli laid the first rules of Realpolitik. It is high time I dedicate a post to this Renaissance Florentine btw, since too many people say: Realpolitik, ok, but Machiavelli, THAT is amoral stuff.

Which needs some clarifying I guess.

Benito Mussolini thought Mukhtar, the Desert Lion, was an obstacle to his colonial conquest. So he got rid of him.

I am not criticizing this [like I’m not criticizing Americans who stopped, no matter how, communism in Greece, Italy or Chile.]

The White-Bearded Bon Père

I was working in Tunisia at the time the campaign for the second re-election of George W. Bush was about to start. I often wandered around Tunis with a taxi driver, this beautiful white-bearded old man I conversed with on many things, politics, culture etc. He greatly helped me to explore the city since he knew every alley, every aspect of it.

I almost always ate at La Goulette, the main port of Tunis (see an overview above) where many Italians emigrated between 1700-1800 before they even ever thought to leave for America.

An area of the port bears in fact the name of la Petite Sicile. There I enjoyed fresh fish that fishing boats carried almost to the waterfront restaurants.

(My table-companions were Tunisian and Italian and we always spoke French. Unforgettable memories)

One of the roads leading to La Goulette. Tunis. Click for credits and to enlarge

One day, while the old man was driving me as usual to the port’s restaurants, I said to him:

“What if Bush had already captured Osama Bin Laden and pulled him like a rabbit out of his hat at the last minute so that his victory in the forthcoming elections would be devastating?”

“They are too intelligent to fall into traps like that,” the old man replied with shiny eyes.

Minaret of the Great Mosque in Tunis seen from an alley of the Medina. Click for credits and to enlarge

Such an answer, given like that, with dreamy eyes, from this dear and good old man whom everyone called le père for his wisdom and who strongly condemned terrorism, puzzled me. I dropped the subject (and perhaps I shouldn’t have.)

Well, I thought later, if this touches the heart of such a wise old man, it is not difficult to imagine what 9/11 may have meant for thousands of young people: a fire, a burst of renewed Muslim pride which swept them and drove them to follow the example (still partly does unfortunately) of the “heroes” of the Twin Towers who sacrificed themselves – for the sake of Allah, his prophet and the civilization they represent – in such an insane, ruthless but also immensely spectacular (to them) way.

Pride Refound and Terrorism

Until September 11 the Muslims had always been badly beaten – the war lost in only six days by their venerable Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, the West always trying to control their oil resources, Israel’s creation as guardian of the Middle-East and champion of the West etc.

At the time of the London bombings (7 July 2005) many had wondered how it was possible that almost adolescent, honest-faced youths had blown themselves up as suicide bombers thus killing dozens of helpless bystanders. Weren’t terrorists wicked, bloodthirsty killers?

Questions such as this show in my opinin a certain lack of understanding – of the human soul, of (fundamentalist) faith and of what the Islamic revolution meant to Muslims and especially to the Muslim youth, from the time of the Ayatollah Khomeini onward.

ψ

A strong but also humiliated culture, Islam, which resists globalization, but unfortunately when reacting with terrorism does the wrong thing totally, giving rise to distrust, hatred (and isolation) all around it.

Tunisians however (not only them) are good and moderate, friends of Italy and of the West. And a great number of them display self-critical attitudes: